Global SITREP C5-24: All Eyes on Isaiah and Jeremiah

Syria

UPDATED 17 December 2024: The above map is a good baseline for the various entities controlling Syrian territory at present. It is from this position that Eschatology Today interprets the prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49: 23-27 will come to their fulfillment.

As of this morning the "rumors of war" that emerged yesterday concerning a Turkish invasion of northern Syria may have become once again a real shooting war. Islamist Turkiyeh has been assessed by most observers to be taking advantage of the sudden collapse of the former regime last week. A noticeable buildup of forces along the northern border in recent days and drone swarm attacks against Kurdish-SDF forces resulted in a lightning Turkish takeover of the border city of Manbij. Those forces have since advanced towards an adjacent border city at Kobani. The Kurdish-SDF has approximately 900 U.S. troops embedded within it. ((Pentagon belatedly admitted there were 2,000 U.S. troops embedded with the SDF.)) The Kurds refer to this northern region as Rojava. The Kurds of northern Syria fear a genocide of their population at the hands of the Turks and their allies.

Jeremiah 49:23-27 provides the best overview for the events which will overtake the whole of Syria, as does Isaiah 17 for the inevitable conflagration between HTS-controlled Syria and Israel. We've seen this prophetic narrative coming for a very long time, but did not fully understand how it would transpire. We did not see how the HTS onslaught against the former Assad regime would cause Russia to evacuate its forces from across Syria. 

Previously both the Russian and American military presence in northern and northeastern Syria prevented a large-scale Turkish military invasion, but now with the absence of Russian forces only the U.S., as a NATO ally of Turkey, would conceivably stand in the way. A rumored American withdrawal from Syria, as noted in recent public statements by President-elect Trump, may be the impetus for the Turkish land grab in northern Syria. A unilateral U.S. withdrawal would leave the Kurdish SDF alone to withstand a resurgent ISIS in the Syrian heartland, and the Islamist HTS group of forces seeking to expand their control to as far as the Iraqi border.

To the south Israel is transferring a good portion of its major land warfare power from southern Lebanon back into Gaza where all indications are that HAMAS and the PIJ are in the process of re-grouping their forces for continued warfare. This would belie the talk about an imminent hostage release-ceasefire agreement as just so much deception, notwithstanding President-elect Trump's promise of dire consequences to HAMAS should hostages remain captive on 20 January 2025. The next 34 days will have to run their course, because as our Lord spoke, "these things must take place."

UPDATE 18 December 2024: Eschatology Today believes in the uniformity of the LORD's inerrant prophetic word in Scripture. Even though our eyes are on Isaiah and Jeremiah the current junction is also where the follow-on prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39 as well as the Angel Gabriel's prophecy to Daniel (Ch. 11:40-45) both seamlessly fold in. Ezekiel 38/39 has been covered extensively, so the focus here will now be on the secondary aspects of these prophecies.

Wagner PMC is now Russia's 'Africa Legion'

The Russian's Are Not Coming, They're Already Here

Russian forces have begun their withdrawal from their two 49-year leased bases on the Eastern Mediterranean Levant in the Tartus and Latakia governorates of Syria. They have hooks embedded, but the LORD has not yet pulled on them! 

Some of the evacuated Russian personnel and war materiel has moved north, back to Russia for the war in Ukraine, as has about 12,000 North Korean combat troops (kings of the East) but that's another story. The rest of Russia's forces are re-deploying to Libya and several nations in the sub-Saharan Sahel region of Africa (i.e. Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Sudan), a/k/a "the king of the South." Until a year ago the Russian PMC Wagner Group was deployed to the Sahel countries, but with the demise of Wagner Russia has re-branded those troops as its 'Africa Legion.'

Give this next sentence the attention it deserves. Ezekiel 38/39 tells of the massive Magog military confederation which invades Israel being utterly destroyed by the LORD on the mountains of Israel. But it does not say that the Magog confederation nations are completely destroyed as well. Has any other prophecy-centric website put forward this clear distinction? These nations appear again during the 70th Week of Years in Gabriel's Daniel 11:40-45 prophecy moving against the Antichrist (the 'he' in that prophecy and his military presence in Greater Israel (the Glorious Land).

Russian 'Africa Legion' Countries

The Iranian and the Turkish Problems

No need to rehash what we've already covered about the catastrophe coming to Syria, except to say that a great deal of what has come upon and is still to come upon Syria, is due to the imperial machinations of Turkey's Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Just as Vladimir Putin wants to recover the former Soviet Union so too does Erdogan want to recover the Ottoman Empire. In this objective the Kurdish people of Turkey, Syria and northern Iraq are an obstacle and a genocide against them looks to be Erdogan's version of a 'final solution.' Erdogan recently stated that had the victorious Allied Powers (UK and France) after World War I not divvied up the Ottoman Empire the way they did Aleppo, Damascus and the rest of Syria would today be an integral part of Turkey. It would seem that Turkish and Russian designs on the Levant and Israel align nicely, hence their Magogian alliance in Ezekiel 38/39.

Iran is pushing full speed ahead with nuclear enrichment for its weapons program, and which has the full attention of Israel and the incoming Trump Administration as well as the UK, France and Germany, among other Euro and Middle Eastern nations. Iran has virtually achieved 90% purity, and thus nuclear weapons capability to the tune of a dozen or more warheads of various yields. Iran, in an alignment with Turkey, is also threatening the new Sunni Islamist government in Syria, effectively saying that its youth will bring Syria back into the Iranian orbit. Eschatology Today has always held the view that Iran will be militarily minimized based upon Ezekiel's listing of the country with second tier powers Kuwsh and Put. The drive for nuclear weapons capability is quite likely to terminate in the very short-term with subsequent airstrikes by a coalition of nations now that its air defense systems are virtually non-existent, thanks to Israel. Still, Iran survives enough to play its prophetic role with Russia and Turkey in Ezekiel 38/39.

UPDATE 27 December 2024: In wrestling for several days about how to close out this final SITREP of 2024 Eschatology Today determined that an essential issue requires addressing. 

As of Monday, 30 December 2024, the State of Israel will have been at war for a continuous 500 days. This war has been expected as a literal fulfillment of prophetic Scriptures for as long as this blog has existed. This seven-front, existential war for Israel is exactly that, albeit an ongoing process of literal fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures. 

Despite the claims of the Israeli coalition government of having defeated HAMAS and the several terrorist groups in Gaza, and of having defeated the Shi'a terrorist Hezbollah and its "Palestinian" terrorist allies in southern Lebanon and Syria, nothing of the sort has actually been realized. Not yet anyway.

On a daily basis IDF troops are killed in combat operations throughout Gaza through firefights or IED roadside bombs. HAMAS and its allies have lost nearly 4,000 fighters, a significant number of their leadership, and have wholly devastated infrastructure both above and below ground, yet these Islamic jihadists have not surrendered, have not been defeated and still hold an unknown number of hostages of various nationalities. Hezbollah and allies are actively recovering and regrouping their forces which likely number in multiple thousands. The government of Israel cannot claim a victory when a clear-cut victory has not been achieved, much less the oft stated and/or re-stated goals of the war. Nearly the same can be said of Hezbollah in Lebanon even though the agreed "hudna" is violated with airstrikes and firefights on a daily basis. Hezbollah is re-grouping and re-arming itself with all of the war materiel Israel has not been able to locate and destroy in either central and northern Lebanon or Syria. Many war materiel smuggling routes remain unlocated. A nation like Israel cannot militarily defeat in a little over 16 months a group of enemies that have prepared for war over the past 16 years. It's easy math, but apparently not so easy for Israel at this time.

So, what's the problem? Have the 12 tribes of Israel done what the LORD יהוה God has told them is necessary for them to do? Before his death Moses wrote the necessities for Israel in the Book of Deuteronomy, chief among them is the exclusive Covenant of loyalty Israel owes to God. Read Deuteronomy 4, and when reading hold on verse 30 which says: "...when you are in distress because all of these things have befallen you, and in the end, return to and obey your God יהוה. The remainder of the chapter is clear as a bell for Israel. Finally in Deuteronomy 26:16-19 we find a summary of what God commands of Israel:

"This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. Also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy [consecrated] people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken."

This is also our prayer to the LORD for Israel, that when He decides the Bride of Christ is to be Caught Up the fulfillment of Romans 11 and Ezekiel 39:29 are to be realized as well. Perhaps today.

Marana'tha! 

The Magoi and the Birth of Jesus Messiah

The Eschatology Today tradition continues to bring this post forward.

21 December 2024: (Original Posting date 6 January 2010): The above image is an artistic rendering of the three Magoi (Magi). In fact, there had to have been quite an entourage who accompanied the Magoi, primarily because of the basic fact that no one makes a 1,000+ mile round trip journey across the desert east of the Jordan River, that between the Parthian Empire and Roman-occupied Israel west of the Jordan River without the supplies of a life-sustaining caravan and significant numbers of mounted cavalry for protection. The actual number of gentile visitors from the east was probably closer to 300 than just 3. It's also a minor miracle that the illegitimate Roman puppet King Herod did not think the appearance of this caravan from the east wasn't the advance guard of a Parthian invasion.

The importance of the whole story about the Magoi (Matthew 2:1-12) is quite likely unknown by most Christians. That's because we've not spent much time learning about it, even though it is Scripture, Old Testament (Numbers 24:14-25; Micah 5:2-5; Isaiah 60:2-6) and very specific prophetic Scripture at that.

Oh, we all know and have visualized one way or another the "We Three Kings" Christmas carol, and have seen Nativity scene imagery like the above for the sum of our lives, but that's not the half of it. There's more... so much more to the story.

The more I think about it, the more I am astounded by the fact that the gentile Magoi who came out of the Parthian (Persian) Empire and made this tremendous journey did so after fervently holding to the prophet Daniel's detailed prophecy (given by the angel Gabriel in Daniel 9:24-26) concerning the coming of the Messiah for over 600 years, and waited generation after generation for a very specific sign in the skies, and all the while knowing the precise number of days until the Messiah's birth because of the details given in the prophecy. They knew how to count Hebrew years, and exactly how many days each year had. They knew precisely when to look for the star.

And then once that sign appeared and the number of days had elapsed they rounded up the multiple parts of a large caravan and the water and provisions for the entire group's survival, plus the gifts for the object of their 500+ year devotion for what had to be a round trip of something well in excess of 1,900 miles across barren desert, mountains, marshes, rivers and wadis.... I stand here approximately two millennia and two decades later in complete awe just thinking about it.

The caravan was quite probably a round trip from Seleucia to Jerusalem and back, on foot and by beast of burden, of GENTILE believers coming from the Magoi's descendants of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great's Empire, the Seleucid Empire to the Parthian Empire of the Roman Era.

That these GENTILES, these Magoi, had clung to and fervently believed in the exquisitely detailed God-breathed prophecy of Daniel concerning the coming birth of the Messiah for hundreds and hundreds of years, through all of the events, wars, and tumults that had occurred in this crossroads region of the known world, is without question the greatest account of the prophetic Word of God causing belief in the God of Israel among gentiles in history prior to the crucifixion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Having been in those same Middle Eastern deserts, such a specifically purposeful journey undertaken 2,000 years ago is mind-boggling to this author. These gentiles from the regions and lands of Israel's captivity knew the details of, believed in, and all the while eagerly awaited the birth of the Messiah. And the Jews, for the most part, due to their disobedience and the spiritual blindness and deafness placed upon them by the Covenant of Moab, besides the Covenant of Horeb, (Deuteronomy 29) knew nothing of His coming; that He would literally be the God of their fathers born in the flesh of a man.

And here we are, knowing in detail that the days of time which are left until the advent of Daniel's 70th Week are all but palpable... just stand in awe and in praise of God. My brothers and sisters, just stand in awe and praise to be a living part of all this.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Global SITREP C4-24: "Catastrophic Success"

Clickable Map of Syrian Governorates

UPDATED 8 December 2024: The above clickable (enlargeable) map is for those who would like a graphic point of reference for provinces (governorates) and their capitals and the locations of important cites. The chosen title for this SITREP, "Catastrophic Success" comes from a decade ago when many in the government feared a radical Islamist (ISIS) takeover of the whole of Syria. Eschatology Today accepts this terminology as being appropriate for the current situation in Syria.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

For those who are new here or just arriving after searching out a website like this (yes, I do see you accessing this site), Eschatology Today is first and foremost a blog about God-breathed prophecy in the Holy Scriptures. The sovereign will of God Almighty has been expressed through His prophets of ancient Israel; He has known what will come to pass on this earth since before time began as He has always existed outside of time and space as humanity can understand those concepts. 

Hence, the LORD spoke of future events through the prophets He selected; He did so for the purpose the living in those days would have understanding by seeking out His Word. To those who seek He provides understanding as necessary through His Spirit. For questions that begin with, "Will this or that happen..." seek His inerrant counsel on the issue as Jesus our Messiah (Christ) taught us, and that is go into a private place and ask of Him directly the question you may have. My personal suggestion for those who earnestly are seeking Him, ask Him to prove to you that He is what He has always said He is. He is the "I AM that I AM." (In Hebrew this is written as YHWH." Be ready for His response - it will change your life FOREVER and in ways that will leave no doubt about His love for you personally. There is no better time for this as we are living in the days of the so-called "end times." The "end times are simply those days, months and years prior to the physical Second Coming of Jesus Christ to establish the His Millennial Kingdom on this Earth.

The Syrian Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad that arose in a coup d'etat led by his father Hafez al-Assad is no more. Remnants of the regime will fade into history over the coming days, weeks or months, as the fractious conglomeration of rebellious militias, primarily Sunni, begin to assert control over the areas they currently hold. They may begin to war amongst themselves or strike out at other enemies such as Shi'a militias which are not Syrian but foreigners. They may move against Russian controlled territory in the governorates of Tartous and Latakia. Thay may, as Islamist all, move against Israel on the Golan. Whatever does actually take place going forward has been foretold primarily be the prophet Isaiah (Chapter 17) and the prophet Jeremiah (Chapter 49). These things are what will take place in the near-term. Eschatology Today will track these events as the LORD directs based upon His revealed word in Scripture.

Clickable Map of the UNDOF

The IDF has occupied the area on this map shaded in yellow. With the collapse of the Syrian regime the 1974 Disengagement of Forces agreement (DOF) became null and void. Israel increased in land area today.

It has long been said that World War IV (WWIV) would begin in the Middle East. Yes, WWIV, because WWIII  was fought and won, it was the so-called "Cold War" of 1944-1991. 

WWIV began on October 7, 2023 and it continues to this very minute and will continue for some time to come. WWIV will likely conclude, if that's the correct terminology, with Ezekiel 38-39, which heralds the start of the 70th Week of Years, a/k/a the Thlipsis and Megas Thlipsis (Tribulation and Great Tribulation). You all are well aware of how this ends, and for the Bride of Christ it's with the shout "COME UP HITHER!"

9 December 2024: The Bottom Line - The al-Assad regime is gone but the civil war in Syria has not ended. There has not been a legitimate transfer of political power which realistically keeps Syria a powderkeg with a lit fuse.

An amalgamation of insurgent militias have control of Syria's major cities in most of western Syria. These insurgents have differing ideological views. 

Some, possibly a majority, are Sunni jihadists. 

Some are scattered remnants of ISIS.

Some are north Syrian tribesmen who are loyal to Erdogan's Turkiye. 

Some are Kurds who control a third of Syria in the regions east of the Euphrates River and are backed by the U.S.-led military coalition.

Some are southern Syrian tribesmen also backed by the U.S.-led military coalition centered in Al-Tanf on the Jordan and Iraq border region, and who recently extended their control northward to Palmyra.

Some are Arab Syrians from the southern Dara'a region who are mixed with local Druse populations.

And then there are the Alawi, cousins of Shi'a Islam in Tartus and Latakia on the Syrian coastline who until a day ago had been dominant over the rest of Sunni Arab Syria via the al-Assad regime.

Added to this mix are foreign military groups such as the IRGC-QF advisors and technical support from Iran, the Shi'a Iraqi PMU militia formations and the Shi'a Fatemiyoun militia from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as isolated Russian troops in several makeshift encampments scattered across the rest of Syria west of the Euphrates River.

All of this lies right across the northern border of Israel.

And the prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49;23-27 have not come to complete fulfillment, which is something global media would never mention.

It's not over in Syria yet, not by a longshot.

OPERATION "BASHAN ARROW"

UPDATE 11 December 2024: In the elapsed time since the last update (about 48 hours) Israel's land, sea and air forces have attacked and destroyed more than 250 military bases, depots, facilities, grounded aircraft (fixed and rotary wing), missile batteries, AA gun emplacements, tanks and armored vehicles. You name it as a military asset of the former regime and the Israeli Air Force has destroyed it. This continuing IDF action, known as Operation Bashan Arrow, is unprecedented in the past 100-year history of modern warfare. 

And it has been a virtual turkey shoot because since the former regime's troops abandoned their posts there has been ZERO air defense over Syria or any kind of defense against Israel's actions. Zip, nada, nothing. Russian and Iranian forces are of no help, they can't fly or are hunkered down in survival mode and looking for a way out. The U.S. and Turkey have hit select targets but not nearly on the scale that Israel has. 

One has to wonder how the victorious Sunni-led insurgency is viewing the annihilation of their expected war booty. There's not much left except for burnt and charred scrap metal.

UPDATE 14 December 2024: The image above captured one of seventeen IAF air strikes on Friday night directed at Iranian-constructed tunnels within the Qalamoun Mountains west of Damascus.

The strategic tunnels were identified by intelligence operations to contain missiles, warheads and their launching platforms. Battle damage assessments have not yet been released on mission objectives. 

It's not too far-fetched to envision that IDF special forces will need to converge on the area, raid the tunnels and destroy them completely as strategic tunnels would contain strategic assets of the former regime such as WMD warheads for the missiles.

A masked opposition fighter carries a flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in the old walled city of Damascus, Syria, on December 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The flag carried by the "opposition fighter" in the image above IS the standard Black Flag of Jihad used by Islamic Jihadists all over the world in their ongoing war against non-Muslim kufr (infidels). HTS was and remains a Jihadist army now in control of Syria.

Any questions?

The above are Sunni jihadists of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). Their contingent in Idlib, Syria is reported to be 4,000 fully equipped troops. The TIP are Uighurs from Xinjiang, PRC. They call their homeland East Turkistan, but currently operate as a integral component force of HTS in Syria. Their ultimate objective is to wage jihad against the PRC and establish an Islamic caliphate in Xinjiang and throughout Central Asia.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP C3-24: SYRIA!

UPDATED 2 December 2024: The map above is current to the present date and represents the most current information on the advance of Islamist forces in northeastern Syria. The advance of the several allied Sunni Islamist militias southwards from the Idlib Governorate is encapsulated within the bold, red-colored borders. The military situation in this region is extremely fluid and will likely change rapidly in the coming hours and days. 

An Eschatology Today assessment of this map indicates the Sunni Islamist forces currently have two primary objectives in the wake of their blitzkrieg-like capture of Aleppo (further to the north or top of this map): 1.) The city of Hama. Islamist forces are within a very few miles of HAMA this morning, certainly within its northern suburbs. 

2.) The Russian military enclave at Khmeimim Air Base adjacent to the town of Jablah. Khmeimim AB is noted by the symbol of a black jet aircraft approximately 15 miles from the red-colored protrusion towards the Mediterranean Sea from the main axis of the Islamists southern advance.

This map also shows the main M5 north-south highway in western Syria, which runs straight from Aleppo to Hama, to Homs and south to Damascus. It is noted as the thin red line top to bottom within the red-bordered Islamist advance through newly captured territory.

Has covered the prophetic elements of the Syrian Civil War for a minimum of the past decade with the essential cores being Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27. Keep these two Scriptures close because they both clearly indicate near-future developments. The Syrian civil war is a key element in the end-times prophetic scenario, with Isaiah 18:3 as a particular standout. Jeremiah 49:23-27 brings in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the ancient region of Edom and Dedan (Arabia), Hamath (Hama), Arpad and finally Damascus.

ISW Critical Threats map of Syria 12/4/24

UPDATE 6 December 2024: Following their capture of Hama and the Hama military air base yesterday the Sunni Islamist forces continued their advance southward and toward the equally strategic city of Homs. The advance is along two axes of approach. The primary approach is via the north-south Highway 5, and the secondary is from Ismaili Shi'a town of As-Salamiye (Salamiyah) via the Raqqa-Homs Highway. 

This advance appears to be more rapid than previously seen as the local municipalities are negotiating surrender prior to the arrival of rebel troop columns. The Sunni Islamists promised no retribution against local populations and that they can continue their normal functioning. The Syrian army had all but disintegrated in front of the Sunni Islamist advance with only minor engagements or brief firefights. As of this date there are no Syrian army defensive positions along the approaches to Homs.

A potential death knell for the Al-Assad regime may be seen in Hezbollah declaring it will not send additional forces to defend Damascus as it is committed to "sheltering and rebuilding" in Lebanon; that it will abide by the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire agreement. 

Few, if any, take Hezbollah at its word. Israel this morning sent IAF strike aircraft to destroy new missile launch sites pointed at Israeli targets. Israel has greatly beefed up the IDF forces along the Syrian border as daily and even hourly IDF re-assessments of the situation in Syria are becoming the norm.

In this light the next best hope for the survival of the Syrian regime is for Russia to airlift its forces (numbering in the several thousands) in the African Sahel (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic and Libya) to the Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia, Syria. It remains to be seen if this redeployment will take place.